


Their Stories

by MaxiBrux



Series: The Right One [3]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:28:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27531529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaxiBrux/pseuds/MaxiBrux
Summary: Clarke and Roan tell us about the paths they traveled to get to the place of deciding whether or not to get married - more of a prequel to the first two parts of the series.This is an adaptation of a Twilight FF that I posted on another site.
Relationships: Abby Griffin/Marcus Kane, Clarke Griffin/Finn Collins (past), Clarke Griffin/Lexa (Past), Clarke Griffin/Roan, Finn Collins/Raven Reyes, Jake Griffin/Aurora Blake
Series: The Right One [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1995097
Kudos: 10





	1. Clarke's Story

**Author's Note:**

> If you don't want to read about how Clarke and Roan got to where they are at the end of the second part of the series then you can skip this story and pick right up at the start of the next part.
> 
> I don’t own the characters. I just play with other’s creations.

When Roan asked me to tell him all about how I became a single mother I didn’t know where to begin. To say I should start at the beginning is probably being a little simplistic because I guess the beginning was when I was born.

I was born to Abby and Jake Griffin in the small town of Arkadia. Abby didn’t like Arkadia and she didn’t like marriage. “I knew I was going to be the best surgeon America had ever seen” she was fond of telling me “and the only way of doing that was by moving to a big teaching hospital”. 

Jake, on the other hand, had never been out of state and had no desire to do so. He had his chosen career and he was happy to be settled in marriage with a child even at a young age. It was a recipe for disaster.

Mom left when I was still a baby. She would turn up for an hour or two a few times a year but would talk to me a lot on the ‘phone or by skype, talking to me about the work she was doing in an attempt to encourage me to also attend medical school and become a doctor. At no point did Abby acknowledge that I wanted to be an artist. Although not physically present for most of my upbringing, Abby was a continuous presence.

Once I started school (I missed Kindergarten) it gave me the chance to get to know some other kids since I generally went everywhere with my dad (and had convinced his colleagues that I was going to be a mechanic like him). I was very shy so I found it difficult to make friends but the gregarious Raven Reyes decided to persevere with me and became my best friend.

A little while later Jake married the widow of one of his friends and I acquired a step-mother and step-siblings. I always got on better with Bellamy, my step-brother, than I did Octavia, my step-sister, despite the fact that he was about four years older than me and she was only one year younger and I didn’t really know why. When I became old enough to understand, I realised that Bellamy was glad that my dad and I were there to help take over some of his responsibility of looking after Octavia, while Octavia saw dad and I as people who were taking away some of her mother and brother’s attention from her. Different view points of the same reality.

As I grew and became more discerning, I got to know Raven’s faults. But I accepted them and never thought that I would become one of her targets. 

It was towards the end of our Freshman year of High School when I had my first boyfriend – Atom. We were together most of the summer but it all came to an end when I caught Atom having sex with Raven on my 16th birthday. They both said that because I wouldn’t have sex with Atom he had to get it from somewhere and that it shouldn’t affect either my relationship with Atom or Raven. It took weeks to rebuild my friendship with Raven but my relationship with Atom was over.

Raven got a big shock when she discovered she was pregnant. I now wonder how she could have been so sure, but she swore that Atom was the father. I think it was my sympathy that allowed me to finally overlook her betrayal. She had an abortion.

I don’t know why I stayed friends with Raven: I actually liked Niylah Trader more but we were both so shy that we just couldn’t seem to find the gumption to make the move. It was something that I came to regret a great deal when I was in my senior year.

I had finally given in to the constant barraging from Finn Collins and agreed to go out with him when he took me to the school prom in our junior year. I knew that Raven was nuts about him and was hurt by his unremitting pursuit of me but she assured me that she wouldn’t hold it against me and that I deserved to go out with the coolest guy at school. I didn’t like to say that there really wasn’t much competition for that title!

Once again it was my birthday that was my undoing. I was 18 and I finally had sex for the first time. Raven and Finn had both gone on about how I would be the only 18 year old virgin in the world if I didn’t give it up. Peer pressure sucks and it was one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life.

When I told Finn about how much it hurt he got angry and we got into an argument. The details don’t need to be repeated since I’m sure everyone can make a guess at the sort of things he said given the slur I made on his technique. Raven told me that it always hurt the first time and that it was much better after that but she did wonder if perhaps I was frigid if it hurt that much.

Although my birthday was in October, it wasn’t until nearly Christmas when I realised I was pregnant. I have no idea why I was oblivious to the early signs but I never thought of pregnancy as a likely diagnosis. When I told Jake and Abby they hit the roof – understandably. Raven was all sympathy and promised to be on my side. Finn was appalled and tried to insist that I had been sleeping around and that the baby could be anyone’s. He said that Raven had told him that I had slept with others but at the time I didn’t believe him.

Returning to school after the Christmas break was an eye opener. I had suddenly become a pariah. Everyone knew about my pregnancy and that Finn denied paternity on the grounds that I had slept around. My life became a living hell. I refused to be home schooled or moved to a different school out of town and persevered at Arkadia High School, ignoring all the sly looks and nasty comments. I worked so hard to make sure I graduated. I would have been Valedictorian but I couldn’t do gym. 

I gave birth to a beautiful premature daughter Madelena Charlotte Griffin at the end of May – luckily at the weekend so that I didn’t need to miss any school. Abby returned to Arkadia to help look after me and Madi until after my last final. Madi’s birth brought me closer to my parents who were so supportive once they had calmed down. (Aurora, my step-mom, and Marcus, my step-dad were both calm and cool about the situation from the first. I think they had to be as a counter point to their spouses!)

I went to Polis to get my undergraduate degree – I majored in Art History and minored in Business. I was lucky enough to get a good scholarship and being a single parent meant that they provided my housing. Madi attended the College day care. I received help from both my parents so we never went without any necessities and I didn’t need to get a job. It was while I was staying with dad between my freshman and sophmore years that I started to date Lexa. Lexa is the daughter of Jake’s best friend and once Lexa came out as a lesbian and they learned that I was bi-sexual the two fathers planned to get us together.

For some reason, Madi didn’t particularly like Lexa – the clichéd child’s intuition at its best. We were dating for nearly three years when Lexa proposed and we were married shortly after. Lexa wanted another child, a baby, and I agreed to visit a sperm bank. I fell pregnant straight away. I struggled with this pregnancy and I had to stop my studies for my teaching degree with just over a year to go.

Unfortunately our baby girl was stillborn. In an emotionally weak moment I agreed to try again straight away and I didn’t return to school to finish my degree.

I liked my OB nurse, Costia, a great deal. That is until I realised she had a thing for my wife. Then it became worse when I realised that my wife had a thing for her too. While I was giving birth to our son, I discovered that they had begun an affair. Lexa moved out the day we took our son home. Lexa was going to name him, but I decided to call him Jake, after my dad.

We managed financially until Lexa and Costia married and moved to Europe where Costia was from originally and Lexa stopped sending child support.

I got an office job and we were doing okay until the company closed down and I, like everyone else, lost my job. Like many people in the poor economic climate, I wasn’t able to get another office job. I was able to get work as a waitress but, as you know, I have foot in mouth problems and soon lost that job too.

The manager said that he knew someone who may be able to help me and referred me to a strip club owner who was looking for a couple of new waiters. My foot in mouth problem didn’t go away so I didn’t last very long and in any case I needed my mom and Marcus to look after the kids while I worked nights. Anyway, one of the other girls said that she earned more money by pulling tricks and she only did it during the day time. I didn’t like it but after some further research I discovered that I could earn enough to support us all just by working the lunch period Monday through Friday and only needed the kids looking after during the school holidays so that’s what I did.

When Dad and his wife Aurora were killed and I went back to Arkadia for his funeral I ran into one of my former clients. Like an idiot he didn’t keep the news to himself and his wife overheard him talking to his buddies about me. The fallout from that meant that my reputation in the town was completely ruined and I never went back. I kept in touch with Octavia and Bellamy and we met up a few times but it never moved past awkward. I think Octavia liked to live vicariously through me because her life at the time wasn’t so great either – her first husband ran off with her maid of honour at the end of their wedding reception! Luckily for all concerned Octavia is now happily married to Lincoln, a man who adores her, and does no more than gently kiss her forehead when she goes off on one of her rants.

And then I met Roan - my favourite client. He booked me for the whole of the lunch period so he was the only one on Thursdays. As we talked a little he asked me to give up the rest of the work if he paid me a stipend and spent one day a week with him. And that is how I got to where I am now – dating the wonderful man who paid me so that I didn’t have to have sex with anyone but him, so that I can be the mother to my son, so that I can continue with my education, so that I can be happy.


	2. Roan's Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roan tells the story of his life to where the end of the second part of the series finished.

Since I asked Clarke to tell me about her life, I think it only fair that I do the same. The only problem is that all the significant characters in my life, other than Clarke and her family, entered my life while I was still a child and the relationships often intermingled: in other words it got complicated.

I was born to Saskia and Otto King, an affluent couple from affluent parents. When my mom died dad was completely distraught, I remember my dad’s devastation clearer than I remember my mom – I was four. I was seven when dad married the widowed (as we then thought – it turned out that she was actually divorced), preacher and political activist, Nia, who had a five year old son. Although we had different surnames, Routh and I never thought of ourselves as anything less than true siblings.

I never liked Nia: she was a harsh woman. Her word was law in our house and over time I saw how she drummed the life out of my dad. She was never physical, I know dad would have kicked her to the kerb if she was, but she was a verbal bully and the whole household suffered for it. The sly passive aggressive comments that at first made you wonder if you were imagining things were her speciality while she reeled you in and then the nail was hammered home when you were full of self-doubt. I often thought that dad only stayed with Nia because of Routh and his worry over what would happen to him if we were no longer with them. 

Our nearest neighbours, the Gedas, were living a similar lifestyle – except Mr Geda was the head of that household and he ruled with a rod of iron. Echo, the only daughter of the house, was my age and we became good friends.

I didn’t know at the time, but ever since Routh was fourteen and Echo sixteen, Routh and Echo were in love with each other but neither one of them was confident enough to either make a move or to at least confide in me so that I could act as a go between. I never really understood the depth of Echo’s love for Routh until he was recovering from his first heart attack when it was too late for them to be together since neither would ever break their marriage vows. When she was just 19, Echo caved in to her father’s demands and settled for a marriage arranged by her father to a rich, arrogant asshole called Caleb. If only either one of Routh or Echo had confided in me: I think that hurt me a great deal, more than I let on, that neither one of them felt able to talk to me: his brother, her best friend.

My high school love life was equally disappointing. I was crazy about Victoria who was going out with bad boy Washington. Meantime, I was constantly pursued by Ontari who I liked well enough but felt no attraction for and no matter what I said, she never seemed to get the message. To be frank Ontari made a complete fool of herself and, eventually, made my feelings for her of vague pity change to active dislike.

I was at College when I finally lost my virginity to a fellow Pre-med student, Maggie. I remember she had red hair, like Victoria, but, other than their gender, it was the only thing they had in common. I went home to attend Nia’s funeral (she died of a brain haemorrhage and I can honestly say that I don’t know a single person who was sad) and I met up with Victoria again who was single having broken up with Washington. We got together and agreed to try a long distance relationship.

When Echo became pregnant, Routh was devastated and succumbed to Ontari’s attempts at seduction (she had turned to Routh when I went to College). When Caleb beat Echo to within an inch of her life while she was pregnant she finally left him. We lost touch for a while since she just disappeared. The local gossip was that he had killed her but I knew she was still alive by an E-mail she sent to let me know she had lost her baby. She asked that I not tell anyone about her message and I never did. Caleb died in very mysterious circumstances a few years later. Echo must somehow have found out because a few months later she got back in touch. When she re-married and had a little girl, Nora, I became her god-father. Echo had appalling taste in men (other than Routh) because Kevin cheated on her and they divorced shortly after when it was discovered that the other woman was pregnant.

Echo married yet again. This time it was to a nice enough man, but I couldn’t see anything in Benjamin that would inspire affection, let alone love from Echo. She told me once that she loved him because he would never hurt her. Given her previous two husbands, I couldn’t argue with that assessment. I did argue when he said he hated the name ‘Nora’ and asked if they would mind a name change. But with Nora agreeing with Benjamin, Echo was outvoted and Nora became Tiffany Nora – I still hate it and am trying to get away with dropping the Tiffany!

My best friend in College was Derek. He married his childhood sweetheart Luna and had one child, a son Aden for whom I am god-father. Aden was always so lively and boisterous that one wondered if he would ever grow up. It was at his stag party that I first came across Clarke.

There was something about our waitress that just drew me in. Before I could find out anything about her the party ended when Aden’s intended bride came on the stage as one of the strippers. She was introduced as ‘the ever popular Candy’. Aden was enraged to discover that instead of being a chef who worked nights as she had informed him, Chantelle was in fact a stripper. The wedding was cancelled.

Anyway, I digress; back to my marriage. At my graduation I proposed to Victoria. Dad tried to talk me out of it but I was determined. Routh proposed to Ontari who accepted once she heard I was engaged. We had a double wedding just before I started Medical School. Everyone agreed that the wedding party was the most attractive they had ever seen.

Unfortunately, in the case of Victoria and Ontari, the attractiveness was only skin deep.  
Ontari was appalled to discover that all our apparent money came from my family and that Routh could only attend College without a job because dad and I paid all his living expenses.

Ontari’s only consolation was that Routh was going to become a doctor and she assumed that he would be able to make lots of money that way. She was wrong. Routh made a good living by most standards, a very good living, but he wasn’t earning the top money that she desired and she made sure that Routh knew that he was a great disappointment to her.

Ontari gave birth to twin daughters: Bea and Ana. Routh adored those girls and they seemed to adore him, too. Ontari didn’t have much to do with them when they were young – they were noisy and smelly, according to her. But as they got older she saw that they were very pretty girls and she publically doted on them as they became an extension of her. One day, Routh and Ontari were arguing over money when Ontari threatened to divorce Routh and make sure he never saw his daughters again. Routh had his first heart attack. It was while Routh was in hospital recovering from that first attack that Ontari started another row about money, this time complaining about his selfishness in staying in hospital all that time to recover when Routh suffered his second attack. This time it was fatal.

I try to stay in touch and do what I can for the girls, for their and Routh’s sake but it is hard. As Ontari’s influence over the girls increased, so has their greed and vanity with a corresponding decrease in their happiness and niceness. I sometimes still see traces of nice Bea when we meet, but she is immediately shut down by her mother and sister so it doesn’t last long. Ontari goes through men, and occasionally women, but never married again. I guess she never had to to get what she wanted from them since she is still a physically very attractive woman. But Derek reckons she never remarried because she is still hoping for a chance with me and the other people are an effort to try to make me jealous!

Back to me and Victoria: Victoria and I didn’t see a lot of each other while I was studying and I was just grateful that she seemed to understand that I couldn’t spend as much time with her as I wanted. Victoria, however, was glad that I was leaving her alone so much: she married me for my money. We had been married 17 months when my lecture was cancelled and the College library was closed due to staff sickness so I went home unexpectedly. I found Victoria with her old boyfriend, Washington. It turned out that he wasn’t so much an old boyfriend since she had been seeing him as well as me all along. They had planned for Victoria to marry me and to get half of my money in the divorce. I had the last laugh.

My grandparents had tied my money up so tight that if I married without parental approval I had nothing – it all went direct to my dad. All that Victoria was entitled to was half of my savings and current account. She got less than $20k and I think she spent most of that on lawyers’ fees trying to get half of what could have been left to me. Dad said that he ‘knew’ there was more than friendship between Victoria and Washington, you could tell by the way they looked at each other even though he knew he could never prove it and that is why he didn’t approve of my marriage. Thank goodness for dad’s intuition. 

After my divorce, dad increased my allowance so that I was able to move into a bigger apartment and get a car. After I got my medical degree, dad signed over $10m to me. With my approval, he gave Routh $1m when he obtained his medical degree (it didn’t last long once Ontari got her hands on it). I inherited the rest when dad died nearly six years ago.

I was still mourning when I saw Clarke at Aden’s aborted stag party. For a few weeks afterwards I tried to forget her, but there was something about Clarke that I couldn’t get out of my mind. I eventually went back to the club to ask about her. It was then that I learnt that she had lost her job as a waitress and was turning tricks. For over a month I tried to get over my disappointment but my thoughts kept turning to her so I gave in a booked a session with her. It didn’t take many conversations with Clarke to realise that she was not meant for the life of a prostitute but she was full of pride and loved her children beyond anything. I couldn’t help but admire and respect her and could only compare her favourably with Ontari who to me was the worse prostitute since she added hypocrisy to the mix.

It took a bit of patience, but I soon persuaded Clarke to let me be her only client. I never told her, but within a week I could see how much happier she became. I tried to never step on her pride, but it didn’t take long for me to realise that I wanted to marry her and to adopt her children as my own (despite her eldest being almost a young adult at the time). 

So that is how I came to be where I am now, waiting for Clarke Griffin to finally agree to put me out of my misery, and agree to be my wife.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You will notice that I used the name Routh for Roan's step brother. It is the name that I used for his younger brother in my story A Second Chance. This Routh is nicer than that one!
> 
> Stay safe.

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter 1 - Clarke's story  
> Chapter 2 - Roan's story


End file.
